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Monday, September 11, 2017

Hurricane Donald

It’s
easy to get caught up in the deeply flawed character of Donald Trump. We
also need to recognize the policy catastrophe of this presidency.

This
past week Trump ordered an end to the Obama-era executive action that shielded
around 800,000 young undocumented immigrants – often called Dreamers – from
deportation under what’s been known as the Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals program, or DACA.

He
then passed the buck to Congress, giving it six months to make the Dreamers
legal. It’s a cruel joke. The Republican congress hasn’t exactly
distinguished itself on its ability to get anything done, especially when it
comes to helping people in need.

Trump’s
argument that Obama exceeded his executive authority in allowing the Dreamers
to stay is bizarre, coming from an administration that has exercised
breathtakingly broad authority over immigration by banning travel from 6 Muslim
countries.

His
decision puts these young people in legal limbo, adds to the uncertainty of
their lives, and imposes burdens on families financially dependent on them.

And
for what reason? There’s zero evidence Dreamers are taking jobs away from
native-born Americans. In fact, evidence points in the opposite direction:
They’ve been generating economic activity that’s created more jobs.

Look
at other Trump decisions – banning transgender people from military service,
siding in court with a businessman who doesn’t want to sell his services to gay
couples, weakening the standard for responding to sexual violence in
universities, demanding money for his “wall,” banning Syrian refugees and
reducing by half the number of refugees admitted to the United States.

Each
of these is unnecessarily cruel toward people who are vulnerable and needy.

Why
is he doing this? To shore up his base, and to deflect attention from
investigations into his campaign’s possible collusion with Russia in helping
him win the election.

Meanwhile,
Trump is neglecting or worsening the five genuinely big problems facing America:

1. The
proliferation of nuclear warheads and missiles around the world, most recently
the danger posed by North Korea.

What
is Trump doing about this? Trying to get America out of its nuclear deal with
Iran, thereby giving Iran and excuse to revive its nuclear program. And he’s
doing nothing about North Korea, whose own nuclear program accelerated after
Trump said during his campaign that he might support allowing Japan and South
Korea to develop nuclear weapons.

2. Climate
change, as exemplified by ever larger and more destructive hurricanes and
coastal flooding.

Trump’s
response? Taking the United States out of the Paris Accord, reversing every
major initiative at the Environmental Protection Agency, and filling his
administration with climate-change deniers.

3. The
undermining of our democracy through voter suppression, gerrymandering, and
interference in our elections by foreign governments.

What’s
Trump’s response to this? Alleging, with zero evidence, that three to five
million fraudulent votes were case in the 2016 election. And then setting up a
trumped-up commission to find such evidence, in order to justify more voter
suppression by states seeking to minimize minority votes.

Meanwhile,
Trump is doing everything possible to prevent Americans from knowing more about
Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, let alone stop Russia from
interfering again.

4. Widening
inequality and a growing population of poor in America.

Trump’s
response? Proposing a tax plan that will make the rich even richer. And a
budget that cuts low-income housing, job training, food assistance, legal
services, help to distressed rural communities, nutrition for new mothers and
their infants, funds to keep poor families warm, even “meals on wheels.”

5. Racism,
hatefulness, and divisiveness.

What
is Trump doing about this? Fueling even more of it – equating white
supremacists with those who oppose racism, militarizing the police, and
legitimizing discrimination against Muslims, Latinos, and African-Americans.

Imposing
unnecessary cruelty is bad enough. Causing the really big problems the
nation faces to become worse is criminal.

Trump
has his priorities backwards. We will be paying the price for years to come.

ROBERT
B. REICH is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of
California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing
Economies. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, for
which Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries
of the twentieth century. He has written fourteen books, including the best
sellers "Aftershock", "The Work of Nations," and "Beyond
Outrage," and, his most recent, "Saving Capitalism." He is also
a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause,
a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the
award-winning documentary, INEQUALITY FOR ALL.